Dragon was Killed EDIT: Pip Killed

[MinxFox]

My mom found Pip dead in the pen in the same place Dragon was found dead. The raccoons got her.

 

[Tikkajazz94]

Quote:
I always liked racoons when i was little. when i got a little bit older and started raising birds they became my least favorite. I know it's kind of lazy for me to ask because i didn't read all the posts but it said pip died on the title! what happened?

post #74 https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=551828&p=8

 

[bdfive]

I'm crying my eyes out. I'm so sorry for your loss and know how you feel. A couple weeks ago I lost my precious 2 1/2 year old peacock, Douglas, I raised from a chick and one of my peahens that followed me around and was always such a good mom. One was taken each night ...chased from the trees and run down. Douglas made it across the neighbors field before he was caught. We suspect Great Horned Owls. I locked up the remaining birds in a predator proof aviary. Have caught 5 raccoons, 1 possum and 1 skunk since. I intend to set the trap every night. We have a park with year round water about 2 blocks from here so many unwanted pets and live trapped animals are released there. In the state of Texas it's illegal to relocate wild animals so if ever I see anyone doing it I'll turn them in. They are just transferring their problems to someone else. My elderly neighbor that lives almost across the road from the park lost her beloved little dog to a raccoon. It could have been one that was realeased. I cried solid for 3 days and still break down .... I love my peafowl and miss the 2 killed so much. PLEASE dispatch problem predators if it's legal....think about the heart ache you may cause another human being not to mention the horrible death of a pet or livestock.

 

[manybirds]

Quote:
we went out about 5 weeks ago an debbie found 9 of her little chicks dead they were like 8 weeks old.at first i thought it was a coon nothing was eating just killed for fun i found were they chewed through the snow fencing an it looked like cat teeth. then i turn around an there is a cat sitting about 40 yards away taking a nap.ran off before i could shot it.we hate cats aswell we are dog people have a border collie an debbie baby is a brittany spanial.

To tell the truth we have cats but they never truble even the littlest of our babies. though they do kill birds

and the one gets wild young rabbits, but he leaves ours alone (i think he knows better)

 

[manybirds]

Quote:
thats probably about when i'de blow a gagcet. u'de see me sitting out there in the middle of the night with my gun and a crazed look on my face foaming at the mouth

 

[LisaAnnW]

My daughter and I are all choked up after reading your story. Dragon was so beautiful, and your devotion is very touching.

Due to menacing dogs coming on our property recently, we bought a dog kennel from Petsmart for our formerly daytime free-roaming chickens. It looks similar to your set-up, just a little less deluxe. We haven't left anyone out in it overnight, because I need to add a top of chicken wire (under the shade cloth), to keep out climbing predators - mainly raccoons. We live just outside Fort Lauderdale, so bobcats and coyotes aren't an issue. After reading others' posts, I realize we need to add wire along the bottom few feet as well. The heat and remnants of tropical depression Emily that flooded us recently have slowed the progress, and I don't have much help. Looking at the photo of your set-up, I wonder if you have smaller wire along the bottom, and wire under the tarp on the top? My experience with predators is that once they find a food source, they randomly come back, and coons can come in groups, surround the cage, and reach through from different sides all at once. Until you can trap the culprit(s), I would put her in the smaller cage (at least at night), and retrofit it like Fort Knox. Also, I wonder if one of those motion detector lights I've seen advertised (solar powered?) would help.

I wish you and your beautiful birds the very best.

Quote:

 

[kuntrygirl]

I am so sad to hear this news.

Dragon was beautiful. I am so sorry.

 

[Knix6468]

Our cats don't bother the adult peafowl when they are out, but they are staring intently at the pea chicks thru the wire.

I was so mad at one of my cats yesterday, a set of quail parents you know the quail that have that little bobber on the top of their heads came to our driveway where there is bird food amongst the gravel. They had about 10=15 babies between them, it was so cute and I was torn between grabbing my camera and enjoying the moment, when they were suddenly disturbed. parents deftly flew to low tree branches and started calling ugently to the cute little babies. the babies couldnt fly more than 10 inches off the ground and scattered in every direction.

One went into the garage and i went running barefoot out the porch to see if I could get it herded back out to rejoin the family, when , one of my favorite cats came strutting out of the garage with a prize in her mouth. I commanded that she drop it right now!! Thinking she wasn't listening I repeated the command several times.

Well, you know how cats mind. she gave me a second look, and picked up her pace so I couldn't catch her and ran under a car and proceeded to finish off the cute little quail. grrrrrrrr.

This cat has a secret entrance to the peafowl pen and meets me inside sometimes when I am in visiting with the birds, She leaves the adults alone and slinks around the cage like she is the interloper.

But, I don't know about feral hungry cats or even house pets that are hungry and "dropped off in the country" . I can imagine that they would get desperate.

 

[Yoda]

did you get the critters?

 

[MinxFox]

We keep on going over their early and late with the lights and we never see a thing. No eyes and no problems. Nothing is setting off traps. We will have to check the cameras again and see if anything has been visiting the pen. The funny thing is my dad was on his way to my grandma's to check on the peafowl and look for raccoons and when he turned off of our road he spotted a group of three raccoons in the middle of the road and a house cat in its yard watching the raccoons. That was the only raccoon sighting we have had but it wasn't at my grandma's.